I've long admired Zale Parry's work as one of the earliest female underwater photographers. She had led the way for those who have followed in her flippered path. You don't hear too much about her outside of the diving circles and that's really too bad as she's done a lot for the sport and a great deal in inspiring more women to take it up as well.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Zale, the oldest of seven children, became a pioneer in the skin and SCUBA diving worlds in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She was famously a Sports Illustrated cover girl in May 1955 and was, at the time, one of first certified SCUBA instructors. As a very accomplished underwater photographer, she became the first woman President of the U/W Photographic Society in 1960.
While some of you will know her from her many appearances on Sea Hunt, she was, in fact, a theatre student while at UCLA. She became the go-to-gal for any studios that would require SCUBA sequences.
She's won many awards and accolades over the years. Just a few include the 1999 Scuba Diver of the Year from Women’s Scuba Association, admission to the Women’s Scuba Hall of Fame in 1999, and the NAUI Hall of Fame in 2000.
As the co-author of Scuba America Vol. I , The Human History of Sport Diving in America, she is making certain that her finprint in the diving world is firm.
Zale Parry